Dzokhar Dudayev

Dzokhar Dudayev (15 February 1944-21 April 1996) was the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from 9 November 1991 to 21 April 1996, preceding Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Dudayev was the father of Chechen independence, having been the first Chechen general of the Soviet Air Force and an activist for the Chechen cause. He led the pro-independence Chechens against Russia in the First Chechen War in 1994-1996, but he was killed by a Russian guided missile after they intercepted one of his phone calls.

Chechen hero
Dzokhar Dudayev was born on 15 February 1944 in Yalkhoroy, Chechen-Ingush ASSR to a Sunni Muslim Chechen family. His family was forcefully deported to the Kazakh SSR shortly after he was born, and they would only be able to return to Chechnya in 1957 after the death of Joseph Stalin. Dudayev studied at the Tambov Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots, graduating in 1966, and from 1971 to 1974 he studied at the Gagarin Air Force Academy. Dudayev rose to the rank of Major-General in the Soviet Air Force, its first Chechen general, and he led a strategic bombing unit in Siberia and the Ukraine. He was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Red Banner for his service in the Soviet-Afghan War against the Mujahideen rebels in the 1980s, and from 1987 to 1990 he commanded nuclear-armed strategic bombers in Estonia. Dudayev learned the Estonian language and ignored orders to shut down the Estonian parliament and television, and he resigned from the military when his unit was withdrawn from Estonia; this earned him a memorial plaque at 8 Ulikooli Street in Tartu, where he used to work.

Independence leader
In May 1990, he devoted himself to local politics in Grozny, Chechnya as the USSR collapsed. He became executive chairman of the All-National Congress of the Chechen People, advocating Chechen independence, and on 6 September 1991 his troops dissolved the Chechen-Ingush ASSR's government. In October 1991, he unilaterally declared Chechen independence from the USSR, and in November Russian president Boris Yeltsin brieflsy sent troops to Chechnya before Chechen soldiers forced them to retreat. In June 1992, Ingushetia left the former Chechen-Ingush ASSR to join Russia, leaving Chechnya by itself. His inexperienced and poorly-guided economic policies undermined the Chechen economy, and an arms bazaar sprung up in the main square of Grozny, leading to rampant crime in the country. In 1994, Russia-backed Chechen opposition forces failed to oust Dudayev from power, and on 1 December 1994 the Russian Air Force began to bomb Grozny Airport to prepare for an invasion.

First Chechen War
The First Chechen War broke out as the Russian Army invaded Chechnya, seeking to defeat the separatists and restore Chechnya to the Russian Federation. In 1995, he headed south to the historic capital of Vedeno to continue the fight as the Russians took Grozny, abandoning the presidential palace. Dudayev insisted that his forces would win once conventional warfare ended, and guerrilla fighters picked off Russian units across the country, demoralizing them. Mufti Akhmad Kadyrov declared a jihad against Russia, and many fighters from the North Caucasus (especially Dagestan) poured in to help the Chechen cause.

On 21 April 1996, Dudayev was detected by a Russian reconnaissance aircraft while he was talking to a liberal Duma member via satellite phone. His voice was matched to speech examples, and two laser-guided missiles were launched at his position in Gekhi-Chu, killing him just six days after his 52nd birthday. Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, his vice-president, took over as acting President, while Aslan Maskhadov was elected in the 1997 general elections.